annual report 2009 �

ANNUAL REPORT 2009 ETHIOPIA

Annual Report of World Food ProgrammeEthiopia 2009.

All rights reserved © WFP 2010

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not employ the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WFP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authority, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers.

Graphics, layout: Ruth Graphic Design and Art Studio

All photographs: Judith Schuler, Melese Awoke, Peter Zoutewelle, Tesfaye Lakew, Asmamaw Amare, Ulrich Hess,/

WFP EthiopiaFront cover – Judith Schuler Back cover – Peter Zoutewelle

For extra copies of the report or additional information on WFP Ethiopia activities, contact:

WFP Ethiopia,Public Information Unit,

PO Box 25584, Code 1000Addis Ababa,Ethiopia 1000

Telephone +251 11 5515188 or fax +251 11 5511241Email: wfp.addisababa@wfp.org

Website: www.wfp.org

annual report 2009

CONTENTS

2 Word from the Country Directory, Mohamed Diab

4 Ethiopia in 2009

5 Overview of WFP Ethiopia

6 MERET – the model for climate change adaptation

8 PSNP – a safety net for the most vulnerable

10 Risk Financing – Insurance against the worst

12 Living with HIV – Moving out of the shadows

13 Staying in School with School Meals

14 Visitors to WFP Ethiopia 15 New Corridors to Deliver Relief

16 The Relief Operation

18 Building the Future with Targeted Feeding 19 Refugees Seeking Sanctuary

20 Capacity Development

21 P4P – Linking Farmers to Markets

22 Delivering As One

24 Donor Contributions to WFP Ethiopia

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Annual Report 2009

Word from the Country Director

Mohamed Diab

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Just as in previous years, 2009 was another year full of challenges for WFp’s operations in ethiopia. the global economic crisis continued to be felt here as it was around the world.

our needs increased due to severe consecutive droughts and, although our donors remained steadfast and generous, the increasing demands placed on us outpaced the resources available to WFp.

WFp ethiopia and its partners responded to these challenges with their customary rigorous professionalism. More than nine million people received WFp assistance through its different operations thanks to the support of the Government of ethiopia, our generous donors and our dedicated staff

the number of people in need of emergency food assistance grew from 4.9 million in January to 5.3 million in May, then to 6.2 million in July. this spike in numbers obliged us to adopt some negative measures such as reducing rations, prioritizing areas based on hotspot information and, at times, skipping distributions.

In spite of these tough economic times I believe donors will continue to champion the cause of ethiopia. this is due in large part to the fact that the donors appreciate the government’s efforts to restructure its economy and to make it more responsive to the needs of the poor.

the government’s productive Safety Nets programme (pSNp) is a case in point. this programme demonstrates how serious it is in addressing the needs of the poor and WFp is proud to support it. In 2009 WFp helped close to 1.4 million vulnerable people under the pSNp.

one of our most important programmes, Meret, which stands for Managing environmental resources to enable transition, was hailed at the Copenhagen climate summit at the end of the year, as one of the ways forward to combat climate change. It has proved to be a successful example of how to rehabilitate the environment and adapt to climate change.

It has great potential for those who are unable to withstand climate shocks and proves how land and water management can halt the serious deterioration of the environment. But scaling up Meret will require substantial amounts of new resources and we will continue to advocate for these funds.

our nutrition programmes, school meals and targeted supplementary feeding programmes, continue to help ensure that the youth of ethiopia have better chance of becoming productive members of society when they reach adulthood. Close to half a million children received school meals and more than a million severely malnourished

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infants and children received vital supplementary food. our HIV programme contributes to the wellbeing of people living with HIV, pregnant and nursing women and orphans.

our Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping system is providing analysis, assessment, contingency planning and risk management information to the government and our partners. It also provided it support in developing risk management and reduction projects for farmers to protect them against crop failure.

WFp initiated the Food Management Improvement project which will enhance reporting and tracking systems for food delivery. Ultimately it aims to decentralize accountability and strengthen the institutional capacity of the government.

Delivering our food assistance has always been difficult. Our operations cover a vast area with poor roads and infrastructure; deliveries in the Somali region are particularly demanding. the port of Djibouti has huge demands placed on it and it is to the credit of WFp that new corridors were opened into ethiopia using the port of Berbera in Somalia and port Sudan.

WFp actively engages with the government, donors and other organizations in coordination groups for disaster risk management and food and nutrition security. these are particularly useful in harmonizing programmes and policy and strategic direction and can influence government thinking on natural resources management, markets and food security and health issues.

the UN’s ‘Delivering as one’ is a good example how the UN family in ethiopia is determined to streamline its operations. Although ethiopia was not selected as a formal pilot country, the United Nations Country team and the Government of ethiopia agreed to implement it. WFp is a committed member of this effort as we are convinced it will enable us to improve the impact of the work of UN agencies in ethiopia.

the government has shown great leadership in developing food assistance and environmental rehabilitation strategies, and implementing its plans and foreign assistance programmes. But, as a developing country, it needs support in its programmatic and capacity development.

WFp takes its role as supporting capacity development very seriously. preventing humanitarian catastrophes and managing risks are as important for us as they are for the government.

the problems facing us and the Government of ethiopia are complex. But this year vindicated the fundamental changes the government has made to its economy. Unlike in the past, the economic shocks did not seriously undermine the economy.

This gives me the confidence that government can face the future and WFp will be there to support it on the road to development.

I wish to sincerely thank all our donors who helped us meet the challenges in 2009 and appeal to them for their continued support in the coming year.

our UN agency partners have given us unwavering support in the coordination and delivery of resources which resulted in maximum effectiveness and efficiency in our collective delivery.

I would also like to thank the Government of ethiopia for its continued support in facilitating the delivery of our food assistance.

I must say with great pride that, in spite of all the challenges we faced, WFp’s committed employees in ethiopia did a tremendous job both in delivery and coordination. All of our partners in ethiopia – the government, donors and our staff – remain committed to improving the lives of millions.

annual report 2009

All this combined with high staple food prices, poor livestock production and reduced agricultural wages meant elevated food insecurity was a constant feature in 2009. By the end of the year 6.2 million people were in need of emergency food relief.

In June 2009 WFp warned that millions of people in the Horn of Africa were facing a battle for survival given the toxic mix of persistent drought, poor rain, conflict and high food prices. The budget shortfall for relief for ethiopia stood at US$123.2 million.

WFp’s executive Director Josette Sheeran clearly linked climate change to hunger at the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009

‘Today for the first time in history over a billion people will go to bed hungry and one of the key factors is increasingly severe and erratic climate.’ the problem is particularly acute in Africa where the Food and Agriculture organisation estimates 95 percent of agriculture is rain-dependent. the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Changes predicts yields from rain-dependent agriculture could be down by 50 percent by 2020.

While land degradation continues to take its toll in ethiopia, climate change poses an additional, urgent challenge to the realization of the full potential of ethiopian agriculture. Its most vulnerable sectors are agriculture, water resources and health.

Adaptation is the key to living with climate change. WFp is constantly looking at ways to help people shift from subsistence farming to more sustainable livelihoods. While dealing with the symptoms of climate change, it is imperative to grapple with the root causes. Actually preventing people from being at risk in the first place by building resilience is clearly the way forward.

ethiopia is the cradle for many of WFp’s innovative sustainable solutions to combat climate change. Among other things, this report will detail how the Meret project, run by the ethiopian government and supported by WFp, is helping people recover their dry and degraded soil and build terraces and dams to prevent soil erosion.

ethiopia also has an innovative, weather-based insurance pilot which protects farmers the devastating shocks incurred by drought. It saves lives and livelihoods thus preventing widespread destitution. WFP is firmly engaged in supporting the capacity development efforts of the Government of ethiopia in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation frameworks.

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2009 was another difficult year for Ethiopia and yet again the weather was the major source of the challenges facing the country. the drought cycle in east Africa is contracting sharply. rains used to fail every nine or ten years. Then it reduced to five years. And now it seems the region faces drought every two or three years. the time for recovery – replenishing either food stocks or livestock – is ever shorter.

For ethiopia this scenario is deeply concerning – already it is one of the poorest and least developed countries ranking 171 out of 182 countries in the UNDp Human Development Index for 2009. Most of its 74 million people rely on subsistence farming.

the destructive weather patterns, such as drought and floods, which prevent the world’s poor from feeding themselves, are finally firmly on the global agenda. For WFp climate change is not an abstract problem. everyday WFp feed millions of people, many left destitute by droughts, floods and other natural disasters, some caused by climate change.

In 2009 two consecutive poor belg cropping seasons (March-May) prompted the ethiopian government to launch an emergency appeal in october for 6.2 million people. the June-September rains started late, were erratic and ended early in some areas. this resulted in below normal harvests in mehr (November –December) cropping areas. It also resulted in shortages of pasture and water which affected the reproduction and productivity of livestock particularly in the water-deficient areas of Afar.

Ethiopia in 2009

annual report 2009

people living with HIV enrolled in home-based care, anti-retroviral therapy (Art) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (pMtCt) programmes.

Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 10127.3)Duration: 1 January 2009 - 31 December 2011. the project entitled ‘Food Assistance to Somali, Sudanese, Kenyan and Eritrean Refugees’ contributes to the Government’s Administration for refugee and returnee Affairs (ArrA) and UNHCr’s assistance to refugees by providing food to maintain their nutritional status until they can repatriate.

Purchase for Progress (P4P)purchase for progress (p4p) is a WFp initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation that builds on WFp’s local food procurement programme and takes it a step further – reaching smallholder and low-income farmers to strengthen their access to markets by supplying food to the agency’s global operations.

Special OperationsWFp ethiopia runs two Specials operations in Somali region:Logistics Augmentation in Somali Region (SO 10721.1)Duration: September 2008-December 2009the purpose of this special operation is to address logistics bottlenecks in Somali region by improving dispatch and delivery of food aid and monitoring of distribution.

Inter-Agency Passenger Services for the Somali Region (SO 10713)Duration: November 2007-December 2009The UNHAS operation aims at providing flight services to the humanitarian community, particularly to areas where land transport is not efficient and or secure.

Country Programme (CP 10430.0) Duration: 1 January 2007-31 December 2011the Cp has two components MERET PLUS and Child-Based Food for Education which aim to implement environmental activities in schools, increase awareness on sustainable development and foster the role of schools as development centers.

stands for “Managing environmental resources to enable transitions to more Sustainable Livelihoods through partnership and Land User’s Solidarity” and is implemented through the Natural resource Department’s extension system.

Children in Local Development/ Food For Education (CHILD/FFE)– this programme supports the Ministry of education’s drive to achieve universal primary education by 2015 through the provision of meals to students in targeted primary schools in mainly pastoral food insecure districts, where access to education is lower.

Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 10665.0)Duration: 1 January 2008 - 31 December 2010.the operation entitled “Responding to Humanitarian Crises and Enhancing Resilience to Food Insecurity” is the biggest of all WFp ethiopia operations and has four components.

Relief/Emergency—the national relief programme provides food and non-food assistance to people at risk of acute food insecurity resulting from shock. the most common shocks in ethiopia include drought, floods, animal diseases and civil conflict.

Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) the pSNp is a joint (WFp-Government-Donors) programme reaching over 7.5 million chronically food insecure people with multi-annual predictable transfers, normally as a mix of cash and food assistance.

Targeted Supplementary Food (TSF)—the enhanced outreach Strategy/targeted Supplementary Food for Child Survival (eoS/tSF) is a joint programme between UNICeF and WFp, supporting the Ministry of Health and the Disaster risk Management and Food Security Sector (DrMFSS). Urban HIV/AIDS Programme—through the provision of blended food and oil, WFp aims to improve the nutritional status and quality of life of food-insecure

Overview of WFP Ethiopia 2009

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MERET PLUS

annual report 2009

Set up in the early 1980s Managing environmental resources to enable transition (Meret) has come of age and is one of the development programmes most valued by the government in tackling food insecurity. external factors such as climate change have propelled Meret to the forefront of sustainable development. At the December 2009 UN Summit on Climate Change, Meret was heralded as a model for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

‘ethiopia has rewritten the book on successful climate change adaptation with the Meret proj-ect,’ declared WFp executive Director Josette Sheeran at the summit.

Meret is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development (MoArD) and supported by WFp; the government has taken it as the model for reversing land degradation in ethiopia.

Meret focuses on helping farmers to manage envi-ronmental resources to increase food productivity in food-insecure areas. Its long-term aim is to build community networks and productive assets which will contribute to resilience to shocks, improve food security and enhanced livelihoods for vulnerable people, in particular women-headed households.

The key to its success is twofold: first the projects are owned and led by the communities. Secondly it has very strong project coordination both at the federal and regional level. Its very longevity has allowed it to build and improve its techniques. It is implement-ed in 72 chronically food insecure districts (woredas) in tigray, oromiya, Amhara, SNNp and Somali regions.

ecosystem rehabilitation, increase in land produc-tivity, livelihood diversification, the building of wells and dams and income generation opportunities are the main contributions of Meret to help com-munities adapt to the impacts of climate change. the reforestation (some 600,000 hectares have so far been reforested) and area closure interventions through Meret help in sequestering carbon dioxide

from the atmosphere which has both local and in-ternational environmental benefit.

In 2009 household income continued to rise; 38 per-cent more households reported increased incomes. This figure underlines the strength of MERET; active participation of households in sustainable land man-agement practices does improve land productivity and expand livelihood options. All Meret planning teams consist of 50 percent women. Women are also engaged in specific income generating activi-ties including accessing micro credit.

Meret participants receive an incentive (food for assets) of three kg of wheat per day for work ac-complished for up to three months annually. In 2009 the late arrival of food meant that 24,000 Mt was distributed to 337,000 beneficiaries.

Meret is seen as a template for ensuring sustained development combating severe land degradation and climate; however a large-scale implementa-tion of the Meret blueprint. will require major additional resources.

Major Physical achievements of MERET since 2000

• over 62,000 ha of cultivated land treated• over 9500 water points constructed and developed (water springs, water ponds & shallow wells) • over 300 million tree seedlings planted and grown • over 26,000 ha of degraded land closed (and rehabilitated with different trees)• over 1,500 km of gully check-dams con structed and rehabilitated • over 2,000 km of feeder roads constructe and maintained • Compost preparation has been promoted in all project districts

Community empowerment and participation

• Household food gap has been reduced by more than three months• About 85 percent of participants are able to cope with drought • About 85 percent of participants have increased production from 150 - 400 kg/yr 80 percent of participants increased their income • 75 percent of participants are able to invest more on education, health, shelter & clothing • Economic and financial rates of return is greater than 12 percent

MERETthe model for climate change adaptation

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Hiwot Gebretsadkan, who lives in Abraha Atsbaha, a MERET project site in northern Ethiopia, says MERET transformed her life when the community helped her build a well outside her house.

‘It gave me access to water which it changed my life,’ says the 35-year-old mother of three. ‘The money I receive from selling guava and lemons allowed me not only to send my children to school but to build a house.’

Until a few years ago, it was almost impossible to farm in Abraha Atsbaha. The land was degraded, covered by sand and full of gullies. Many people simply left.

The introduction of MERET in 2003 had an impact on the entire village. It offered people food assistance and a way to improve their land; villagers started to return home. Working with local administration and develop-ment agents, the community started the MERET inter ventions by building terraces and check dams in the

surrounding hills to stop rain water from carrying away soil and to increase the level of the water table.

As the ground water level rose, the community built shallow wells near their homes which allowed them to grow fruits and vegetables. Using food for assets activi-ties they then constructed roads to give them access to market.

Hiwot remembers the hard work it took to build the check-dam, but she is grateful for the food rations she received in compensation.

Hiwot’s fruit and vegetable production has steadily in-creased, as has her income.

‘I don’t know where my children and I would be with-out MERET,’ Howat declares. ‘If the children are smart enough they will make good use of their education and have a better life. They won’t suffer like I did.’

Cutting the CarbonWFp in ethiopia has been working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development (MorAD) to initiate a carbon credit project.

eco-securities, a UK based private company, made an assessment of potential areas for carbon cred-its. the assessment recommended reforestation and the installation of fuel efficient cooking stoves in schools benefiting from WFP school meals and selected households as the most suitable projects for ethiopia. Both projects are aiming at reducing the quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere based on the international standards as set by the

Kyoto Protocol. Communities will benefit from the sale of the credits based on the quantities of car-bon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.

Four big regions (tigray, Amhara, SNNpr, and oro-mia) were targeted and they have selected the districts (woredas): eight in tigray and Amhara; three in oromia; and four in SNNpr. Currently the selected woredas have started ground preparation and plantation for the reforestation and are in the process of identifying households for the installation of the fuel efficient stoves. WFP is investigating avail-able technologies to accommodate the cooking pots in schools.

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Social safety nets are an important part of WFp’s programme in ethiopia. the recent wave of shocks – the global financial crisis, high food and fuel prices and food shortages have meant an emphasis on transfer programs targeted to help the poor and those vulnerable to shocks. they can boost income, nutrition, and job opportunities for groups, such as the chronically poor, and those thrown into poverty because of crisis.

WFp is a partner in ethiopia’s productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), a flagship for Africa in terms of social safety nets, which reaches many millions of rural dwellers with much needed support while generating community assets. It was launched in 2005 and is composed of two components: direct support and public works.

pSNp provides predictable transfers of food or cash, or a combination of both, to help bridge food deficit periods and to ensure people do not sell off their productive assets in order to meet their basic food requirements. the government-led programme reaches over 7.5 million people with transfers for a period of six months to nine months a year.

WFp’s role in the pSNp is the provision of food - the normal ration transfer is 15 kg of cereals, 1.5 kg beans, and 0.45 kg oil. Limited resources in 2009 meant WFp distributed 91,000 tons of cereals to 1.4 million people.

When pSNp is introduced in a district (woreda) the communities, in consultation with the local government, select the food-insecure households that should qualify. In 2009, due to the severe food security problem caused by erratic rainfall, the programme was extended for two months for over six million people. pSNp was a crucial tool in protecting these vulnerable people from high food prices and reduced harvests.

pSNp has short and long term aims: the immediate aim is to ensure households build resilience and thus do not deplete their assets in times of shock; in the long term it focuses on rehabilitating ethiopia’s degraded environment. As most of their immediate needs are met, the communities can participate in activities related to more resilient livelihoods such as rehabilitating land and drought mitigation projects.

PSnP a Safety net for the Most Vulnerable

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Longer term they also rehabilitate rural roads and build schools and clinics. the environmental projects benefit from WFP’s experience with MERET’s community-based development programmes.

In 2009 105,000 people ‘graduated’, meaning they had reached a level where they were no longer aid-dependent. WFp aims to reinforce technical training and complementary assets in 2010, which marks the second phase of pSNp, to improve on the graduation figures.

Katana Kusiya is waiting patiently at a distribution in Fasha in the Konso region in south SNNpr. this area was badly affected in 2009; the short belg rains, on which the communities depend for their harvest, failed totally. the number of people in area who need food assistance doubled to 127,000.

‘I really need this food,’ says Katana. ‘I support eleven family members and with this food I can feed my family for a month.’

In return for her food, Katana has been building latrines and wells, and working on terracing which is designed to capture rain water.

these public works have greatly enhanced the resilience of people like Katana and the standard of living in Fasha.

But the farmers still depend on their crops as their main source of food and, in recent years, this has

proved problematic. pSNp, especially this year, proved to be a real safety net for these farmers.

The rains here have been poor for the last five years. In 2009 the rains failed completely which meant that the normal monthly ration of 15 kg of cereal was extended from six months to eight months.

‘this food means I can cook dinner for the family but I have to explain to the children that I can only give them one meal a day,’ say Katana.

‘If there was rain we would have a variety of vegetables. Now I am reduced to cooking cassava or the wild foods I can find. Sometimes I just cook coffee leaves to drink.’

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Risk Financing Insuranceagainst the worst

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ethiopia is chronically food-insecure for one incontrovertible reason. Nearly all its agriculture is rain-fed and depends on the arrival of seasonal rains for successful cultivation. When a drought or excessive rains occur, the result is a shortage of food. Farmers in ethiopia are completely exposed to these climate risks and bear the full brunt of climatic variability

protecting people by anticipating major crises and preventing the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe is taking on an increasing importance in WFp’s operations in ethiopia. this involves a shift away from disaster relief after the fact to preventative risk management as the guiding principle for response to emergencies.

WFp’s Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM) unit plays a pivotal role in WFp’s capacity building strategy in this area - providing analysis, assessments, contingency planning, and information management and dissemination.

WFp had a key role in the risk management framework adopted in to the government implementation plan for the productive Safety Net programme (pSNp). progress has been made in the implementation of the risk financing mechanism - early warning component, which WFp, the Government of ethiopia, the World Bank and other stakeholders worked on in 2009.

WFp, the ethiopia government and the World Bank have developed the LeAp software which broadly stands for Livelihoods, early Assessment and protection. In 2009, the software was used to generate a number of early warning products depicting rainfall performance, crop performance and pasture performance which has been released as bulletins for both the belg (short) and meher (main) cropping seasons

A pilot insurance contract was designed for haricot beans based on weather index based LeAp output. through the Lume Adama Farmers Cooperative Union, the Nyala Insurance Company sold drought policies for haricot beans to 140 farmers, living some 140 km from Addis Ababa. these smallholders received a payout as early as october 2009, right after a partially failed meher season.

Shuma Bejiga, who farms in Bofa woreda in eastern Shoa zone, was one of the lucky farmers who received an insurance payment. In 2008 his crops failed because of poor rain and then in 2009 erratic rains again ruined his harvest.

‘We were expecting the short rains in March and April but they only started in June so we didn’t know what to plant. to make things worse, the rain then stopped at the flowering stage of the crops, so they never had a chance to develop,’ says Shuma.

He says he is extremely grateful for the insurance

money; farming is his main source of income and he has a wife and ten children to support. He believes the scheme will help farmers become more confident and productive.

‘This insurance payment is the first I have received and it covers much of my loss. I really appreciate the payment, it will at least take us through the next few months,’ says Shuma.

VAM also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Meteorological Agency (NMA) in 2009 aimed at establishing 20 automated weather stations in pastoral areas of Afar and Somali region and Borena zone of oromiya region; they will ensure real time and accurate data to NMA.

Woreda Disaster Risk Profiling

The Woreda Disaster Risk Profiling Programme was launched in September 2009 by Disaster risk Management and Food Security Sector (DrMFSS) under Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development with technical assistance from WFp’s VAM unit.

the programme aims to identify all risk elements (hazard, vulnerability and capacity to cope) at district or woreda and sub-woreda levels with the view to designing disaster risk reduction programmes and informing the kind of early waning and response system needed.

the uniqueness of the programme lies in the fact that all human resources engaged are existing government staff and are being trained at every stage of the programme, resulting in a streamlined transfer of skills to the government. the programme is also based on multi-agency collaborations and partnerships are being explored with national universities.

All relevant information about risk elements in a woreda, and risk profiles and contingency plans for each woreda will be put on a web-based database. the programme is currently being piloted in 80 woredas from different regions and will be subsequently expanded to all woredas in the country.

Food and nutrition assistance from WFp means life has changed dramatically for Kelemua Habtemar-iam. She lives in Gullele, a district of Addis Ababa. eighteen months ago she was bedridden, ill and weak, and unable to look after herself and her three children.

Kelemua, a 30-year old widow, was so fearful of the discrimination she might face that she stayed hidden in her one-room home, refusing to go out. once tested for HIV, she was immediately put on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and qualified for WFP assistance.

Now she is back to her normal weight and, with her food ration from WFp, can feed herself and her chil-dren.

‘After I started getting the food and medication, I regained my strength and my health condition im-proved tremendously.’

Kelemua is one of the many people living with HIV (pLHIV) receiving food and nutrition assistance from WFp. the organization also provides food assistance to women attending the prevention of mother to child transmission (pMtCt) services, and helps or-phans and vulnerable children.

She attends sessions in her local association for pLHIVs. Kalemua says it is really important for her as it is one of the few places where she feels free to discuss her status.

‘I have not told anyone else about my HIV status because I know people would start pointing their finger at me and shun me. But when my children are older I will sit them down and tell them everything. right now they are too young to understand.’

WFp seeks to improve the nutritional status of food-insecure pLHIVs on, or about to receive Art, and mothers on pMtCt, by providing food and nutrition education. pLHIVs graduate when their nutritional status has stabilized, and mothers on pMtCt when their babies are old enough to be tested for HIV. they are then linked to income-generating activi-ties or other employment opportunities.

pLHIVs and mother attending pCMtCt services re-ceive a household ration of cereals, pulses, blend-ed food and vitamin A and D fortified vegetable oil. orphans and vulnerable children receive an indi-vidual ration of the same food basket to encourage school enrolment.

recent studies show that people on Art who re-ceive food and nutrition assistance stand a good chance of recovering from malnutrition; 57 percent of adults on Art in 2009 saw their nutritional status improve after six months of food and nutrition as-sistance. Figures for adherence to Art treatment are also improving; almost 20 percent more clients adhered to their treatment in 2009 as compared to 2007. WFp assisted some 117,000 vulnerable people and children in 2009.

School enrolment of orphans and vulnerable chil-dren, living in households receiving food assistance, increased from 80 percent in 2006 to 99.6 percent in 2009.

‘If I didn’t get food from WFp, I wouldn’t have any-thing; my children would not be in school and I wouldn’t be here,’ says Kelemua.

WFp focuses its work in 20 cities; poverty is the main driver of HIV, which is prompting people to migrate to the cities. overall activities are coordinated by the government Ministry of Health or HIV/AIDS pre-vention and Control Office so as to ensure harmony with other programmes such as the Global Fund and the ethiopian Multi-Sectoral AIDS project.

ethiopia has an average HIV prevalence rate of 2.4 percent, ranging from 7.7 percent in urban areas to 0.9 percent in rural areas.

Moving out of the shadows

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living with HIV

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Officially called Children in Local Development-based Food for education (CHILD/FFe) is one of the two components in the US$166 million country programme. the FFe segment targets 915 schools in food-insecure communities selected on the basis of gender disparity, low enrolment, high drop out rates and the community’s willingness to own the project.

CHILD is a participatory planning approach that encompasses both schools and communities. It aims to transform schools into local development centers in partnership with local government, NGos and other UN bodies. Complementary activities can include sanitation and health education, access to water, school gardening, and promoting educa-tion of girls. It also empowers communities to mo-bilize resources for these activities and other larger infrastructure projects. Currently it is implemented in 283 schools.

Asiya Kedir Adem, a nine-year-old pupil, is in the FFe programme. She has been getting school meals for the last two years. Asiya comes from a pastoral family and attends the Lehada elementary School in Mesgid kebele, Chifra district in the Afar region. In the morning Asiya gets nothing to eat at home which means she makes her hour-long walk to School on an empty stomach.

‘the porridge is so good, I can’t wait until they serve It at school,’ she says.

For children like Asiya the school meal is often the only meal they can really count on. Sometimes there is no food at Asiya’s home for dinner, espe-cially during the dry season when the family’s cattle migrate.

In 2009 482,000 children received a daily cooked meal consisting of 120 grams of blended food, six grams of fortified vegetable oil and three grams of iodized salt. In addition a take-home ration of eight liters vegetable oil per semester is provided to 78,000 girls in selected schools who have an 80 percent at-tendance record to encourage the enrolment of girls. Women are also actively encouraged to par-ticipate in the food management committees. the results of the school meal programme are mea-surable. the number of children enrolled in all WFp

assisted school shows an annual enrolment growth rate of 14 percent in 2009. the attendance rate for WFp assisted schools is established at 0.99 percent for both girls and boys, which is one percent higher than last year. Furthermore, the dropout rate in as-sisted schools was nine percent for boys and seven percent for girls, which is lower than in 2008.

the pass rate for WFp assisted primary schools is par-ticularly good - 89 percent for boys and 87 percent for girls.

At a strategic level WFp has supported the Ministry of education and other partners in the develop-ment of the school health and nutrition strategy. It is awaiting final approval by the ministry.

In order to build the capacity of partners the pro-gram provided four training sessions on CHILD plan-ning approach, on food handling and manage-ment and another on HIV peer education and club management.

the children have no doubts as to the attraction and benefits of school meals. ‘I love school now and I am studying hard. I think I would like to become a veterinarian when I grow up because some of the cattle in my family have died because of disease and I want to help cure them,’ says a beaming Asiya.

Staying in School withSchool Meals

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annual report 2009

Visitors to WFP Ethiopia

WFP Ethiopia hosted a number of high profile vis-its in 2009. president John Kufour visited the country in october in his new role as a WFp Ambassador Against Hunger. the former president of Ghana traveled to Nazareth to view the Meret land reha-bilitation project in oromia region.

Another Ambassador Against Hunger, the Swiss DJ Bobo, returned to projects in tigray for which he has raised 200,000 euros. He said the success of the projects renewed his commitment to fighting hun-ger worldwide.

the US Ambassador to rome Based Food Agen-cies, ertharin Cousin, traveled to Jijiga in the Somali region and Dire Dawa in December to see WFp’s logistics operation and a productive safety net proj-ect. She also visited a CHILD and school meals proj-ect.

Six African Ambassadors based in rome visited in october. the Ambassadors from Mozambique, Lib-ya, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, Nigeria and ethio-pia were part of the African negotiating team for the Copenhagen climate summit. they traveled to Tigray and SNNPR to get first-hand experience of the Meret climate change adaptation and mitiga-tion projects.

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annual report 2009

Delivering humanitarian assistance in ethiopia, especially in the Somali region, is hugely problem-atic due to an extremely poor infrastructure over a vast area, a pastoral people constantly on the move, and the conflict and a complex clan-based system in the Somali region.

In addition to this lethal set of obstacles is the serious port congestion and bottlenecks in the port of Dji-bouti which does not have the capacity to handle ever increasing relief needs. In 2009 food aid re-quirements increased to 740,000 tons from 413,000 tons in 2008. A shortage of trucks compounded the challenges facing WFp.

WFp responded to this by successfully initiating discussions with government counterparts about opening corridors into ethiopia using the ports of Berbera in Somalia and port Sudan.

the Berbera corridor, which goes through Somali-land and the Somali region of ethiopia, was opened in April 2009 and serves mainly the Somali region and offers cost efficiencies as well as more timely deliveries. the port Sudan corridor was reopened in May 2009 to serve the northwest of the country. the two ports have proved their worth in peak times,

newcorridors to deliver relief

when there are usually long delays of discharge and dispatch of food commodities in Djibouti. Approxi-mately 90 percent of the commodities received in ethiopia are purchased abroad and arrive by sea through the three corridors – in 2009 Djibouti port re-ceived 442,000 tons of commodities, Berbera 98,000 tons and port Sudan 65,000 tons.

WFp ethiopia has effectively used the port at Ber-bera mainly in support of the Somali region opera-tion. the Berbera corridor is expected to contribute further to cost-efficiencies and timely deliveries of food commodities to the Somali region; uncer-tainty in supply of long haul transport in the Djibouti port route has often led to frequent supply breaks in deliveries of food commodities from Djibouti to Dire Dawa and to the Somali region.

Late in 2008 WFp had established a Hubs & Spokes system to augment logistics capacity in the Somali region by setting up storage ‘hubs’ and then dis-patching the assistance via ‘spokes’ to nearly 300 Final Distribution points. Logistic hubs were estab-lished in Gode and Degehabur in 2008 and in Kebri-dehar and Jijiga at the beginning of 2009

WFp Logistics manages the supply stream of food aid from reception at the ports to the delivery and handover to government counterpoints at designated handover points. thereafter WFp maintains a monitoring role while the government is responsible for delivery and distribution. However, in the Somali region, WFp is responsible for the entire supply chain and delivery to some 300 handover points

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annual report 2009

WFp’s relief operation supports the government’s national relief operation which assists people fac-ing acute food insecurity. these are people, who although not completely resource-poor, are still un-able to meet their food needs in emergencies.

poor harvests, prolonged drought and continuing high prices in 2009 meant that there was a steady increase in relief needs. In January the government announced 4.9 million needed food assistance; that increased to 5.3 in the second quarter of the year and in July, following a reduced belg harvest, the government said 6.2 million would need emer-gency relief until the end of the year.

In 2009, 460,000 tons of WFp’s relief food assistance was provided for 5,700,000 people in need of relief. eight rounds of food allocations were made in 2009 for Somali region under the Hubs &Spokes system and seven rounds for other regions receiving food assistance.

the people should have received a monthly ration of 15 kg cereals, 0.45 oil and 1.5 kg pulses with 35 percent of the most vulnerable people receiving an additional 4.5 kg of blended food. Due to a short-age of resources, the majority of people received either reduced rations or incomplete food baskets.

WFp monitors all distributions and its food monitors regularly consult with the local authorities and com-munities. Starting in 2009, posters were displayed at

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unHaS – the lifeline into the Somali Region

Performance in 2009:Based in Addis Ababa, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flew a total of 1,800 hrs, moved 8,700 humanitarian workers and 94,400 kgs of light cargo in 2009 at a total cost of US$1,980,000.

The air Operator:UNHAS uses a dedicated 12-seater light aircraft (Caravan Caravan 208B) and an identical additional ad hoc aircraft owned by Abyssinian Flight Services (AFS), one of the four private local operators. the company had to go through a rigorous inspection exercise to ensure required WFp air safety standards are met before contracted.

Donor Participation and user agencies:the air-passenger service is funded by donations from the US Agency for International Development, the Spanish government, the UK Department for International Development, the european Community Humanitarian Office and the UN Central emergency response Fund, and has so far been used by 40 organizations including UN agencies, international and national NGos, donors, and government counterparts.

UNHAS is grateful for the commitment of its donors to keep the service going for the benefit of the people in the Somali region of ethiopia.

Destinations:the air service is currently covering seven destina-tions in its regular flight schedule (Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Jijiga, Kebredahar, Warder, Gode, and Dolo Ado), and is expected to expand to other destina-tions as the demand for humanitarian projects in the region increases. UNHAS ethiopia also serves other ad hoc destinations, mostly in the Somali region, such as Fik and Hargele. expansion is also expected because of the influx of Somali refugees into Ethio-pia from the south east.

The Relief Operation

annual report 2009

each food distribution showing the exact entitle-ment for each person. this was done to increase their awareness of their entitlement and thus re-duce any potential disputes. preliminary soundings show that these posters were well received and heightened awareness.

While WFp’s relief operations are implemented across the country it is the Somali region which is the most problematic. A highly volatile security sit-uation, continuing drought and a very poor infra-structure means the relief operation here is plagued by security incidents and major delays.

Food Management Improvement Project

Since March 2009, Food Management task Force meetings have been held on monthly basis to dis-cuss food pipeline breaks, port congestion and the problems relating to food operations.

After serious problems of food management by different government partners were revealed in a number of assessment and evaluation missions by WFp and donors, the Food Management Improve-ment project (FMIp) was jointly initiated by WFp and the Disaster and risk Management and Food Secu-rity Sector (DrMFSS).

FMIp will design, develop and implement a new commodity tracking and reporting system. In the longer term, the project aims to enhance the food commodity management and supply systems, and define clear roles and responsibilities in supply chain management and reporting within the government structure. the project also aims to decentralize ac-

countability and built capacity across the board and ultimately strengthen the institutional capacity of the ethiopian government.

Contingency planning in 2009

Contingency planning exercises were carried out with the objective to improve the preparedness and the response of WFp ethiopia in the case of an emergency. Contingency planning has reinforced interagency relations and acted as an information sharing tool among stakeholders.

At the beginning of 2009, WFp and the government’s Disaster and risk Management and Food Security Sector (DrMFSS) joined efforts to provide training on contingency planning to the regional staff in Gam-bella, which is prone to flooding. Following this train-ing exercise, the region prepared a flood contin-gency planning document which ultimately served for decision making at the federal level in terms of the pre-positioning of food for four woredas which become inaccessible during the main meher rainy season.

oCHA, WFp, UNICeF and UNHCr have started a contingency planning process in order to map out existing tools, and to plan how to strengthen the process. In the future, governmental counterparts, as well as other humanitarian partners, will be in-cluded in order to ensure a proper response in the event of a major emergency situation. the govern-mental counterpart is DrMFSS and or the Adminis-tration for returnee and refugee Affairs, depend-ing on the emergency and the responsible sector institution.

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over the past decades, child malnutrition in ethio-pia has persisted at alarmingly high rates. robbed of vital nutrients, children grow up stunted, a huge disadvantage in a land that still runs on manual la-bor. It is a chronic, lifelong, irreversible situation that can blight their future.

According to the ethiopia Demographic Health Survey published in 2005, more than 38 percent of children under five in Ethiopia are underweight and 47 percent of children are stunted. Under nutrition contributes to 58 percent of the deaths of children under five.

ethiopia has one of the largest child survival pro-grammes in all Africa — the enhanced outreach Strategy/ targeted Supplementary Food for Child Survival (eoS/tSF) was launched in 2004 and is a joint programme with WFp, the Ministry of Health (MoH), UNICeF and the Disaster risk Management and Food Security Sector (DrMFSS)

In 2009 700,000 children and 330,000 pregnant and nursing women in 167 districts (woredas) received food assistance. tSF emergency interventions in ad hoc ‘hotspots’ (areas prioritized according to ur-gency and level of need) reached another 60,000 children and 28,000 pregnant and nursing women in 39 woredas.

the tSF ration consists of 25 kg of blended food (CSB) and three litres vegetable oil for each child and pregnant or nursing woman; the ration cover a six-month period.

Habtamu Wolde is three-and-a-half years old and thriving thanks to a tSF intervention. He lives with his mother, Zenebach, in Wunjela Birhaneselam kebele in Kembata tambaro zone, SNNpr. His eoS screen-

Building the Futurewith

Targeted Feeding

ing showed he was suffering from acute malnutri-tion and swollen feet.

‘My son stayed at the health centre for three weeks for treatment and then once I received my tSF ration, I took him home,’ says Zenebach.

At home his mother continued to care for Habtamu and feed him his supplementary food as instructed. She insists he is only alive and healthy today be-cause of the tSF intervention and the nutrition infor-mation she received.

Involving women in the entire process helps ensure nutrition messages are successfully transmitted to the community. Female Food Distribution Agents (FDAs) manage the food at the community level and distribute it to the malnourished children and women. A key component of their work is to provide basic nutrition education on the use of supplemen-tary feeding, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and the introduction of complementary feeding while continuing to breast feed.

In 2009 WFp worked with its implementing partner – the regional DrMFSS - to make tSF food deliver-ies more timely with special focus on the woredas with a screening frequency of three months. these woredas are part of the UNICeF supported Com-munity-Based Nutrition, introduced as part of the National Nutrition programme. to improve the ac-curate targeting of tSF, in 2009, WFp worked with UNICeF and MoH to introduce screening teams to act as ‘gate-keepers’ and do a second level of screening to ensure the tSF eligibility of the children initially screened. this was piloted in a total of 15 highly problematic woredas in Afar and SNNp re-gions.

A Knowledge, Attitude and practice (KAp) report commissioned by WFp and released in December 2009 made several key recommendations to in-crease awareness and the proper use of tSF, and to discourage household food sharing. these include stressing the fact that tSF is a medicine and making mothers’ attendance at nutrition education a strict condition for receiving tSF.

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Central Procurement Service

this service was formally launched in 2009 with the aim of providing a centralized procurement service for blended food (known as Famix in ethiopia). After the 2008 food price crisis WFp proposed a single ser-vice for the allocation of CSB to ensure market price stability, quality and a constant supply to people in need. WFp is responsible for procurements and opened the service to NGos receiving funds for this purpose through the Humanitarian response Fund (HRF). In 2009, the HRF confirmed it would use the ser-vice and by the end of the year WFp had allocated a total of 2,600 tons.

annual report 2009

ethiopia continues to be a haven for people in the region fleeing unrest, particularly those in highly un-stable Somalia. In 2009 there was a significant in-crease in ethiopia’s refugee population, climbing from 83,000 in January to 115,000 in December. the new arrivals came mostly from Somalia and eritrea.

In early 2009, a new camp for refugees fleeing the conflict in Somalia was established in Boqolmayo, southeastern ethiopia. At the end of the year, the camp had almost reached its maximum capacity of 20,000 refugees. Altogether WFp works in eight refugee camps.

Sherif Abdirahman Ibrahim, a 50 year-old religious leader from the Somali capital of Mogadishu, ar-rived in the Sheder refugee Camp near Jijiga in the Somali region of ethiopia in october 2008, shortly after the third refugee camp in the area was opened. Abdirahman was forced to leave every-thing behind and flee after his life was threatened because of his religious beliefs. the journey across Somalia was long and dangerous; he was the only

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one of the small group of religious leaders who ar-rived safely. Fortunately, his wife and children were able to follow a few months later.

‘My biggest dream is to return to Mogadishu where I was a widely respected man and leader’, says Ab-dirahman surrounded by his wife and children who nod in agreement.

‘However, considering the ongoing crisis in my country, this dream might not come true for many, many years. I am very thankful that my family found shelter here in the camp, at least we are safe and we receive food that allows us to survive.’

Abdirahman is very active in the camp, both as a leader and as a medicine man. He advises his many friends and neighbors and gives them differ-ent herbs, powders and oils he brought all the way from Mogadishu. In addition, he grows tomatoes and other vegetables near his hut; he says they are a good complement to the food they receive from WFp.

refugees have a very limited ability to meet their food needs as they have little or no access to farm land or any other income earning opportunities. WFp provides daily food rations of cereals (450 grams), beans (50 grams), vegetable oil (30 grams), fortified blended food (50 grams), sugar (15 grams) and iodized salt (five grams). It managed to regu-larly feed the entire refugee population for the en-tire year with a full food basket with the exception of salt and sugar from June to September. WFp also provides school meals in some camps and targeted supplementary feeding for malnourished children in all the camps.

Refugees Seeking Sanctuary

In 2009 WFp ethiopia worked to align its capacity development strategy and action plan with the main strategic shift from pure food aid to food as-sistance at the corporate level. Capacity develop-ment is a key instrument in this move.

WFp worked at the central level with Ministry of Fi-nance and economic Development, UNDp, UNICeF and other relevant partners in defining the best way to assist regions most in need through the Develop-ing regional States initiative. this initiative focuses on the development of capacities for the delivery of basic services in the Somali region, Afar, Gam-bella and Beneshangul Gumuz - and constitutes one of the main Joint Flagship programmes, which is a component of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

In order to allow for the appropriate understanding and appraisal of systemic capacity development requirements at the regional level, a programme of workshops was launched late 2009, with the participation of the respective regional Bureaux of Finance and economic Development. these work-shops aim to illustrate the new strategic direction of the Government of ethiopia, WFp and its UN part-ners and at ensuring that regions have the required technical competence to identify critical capacity developments gaps.

KNOWLEDgE MANAgEMENT In 2009 WFp ethiopia began an innovative process of strengthening and formalizing its ability to share its knowledge and experience with the creation of a Knowledge Management unit in September.

Knowledge Management has two main tracks, the first to strengthen information management, access and internal communications, and the second to promote and facilitate the sharing of practices, experiences, studies and documents.

The Country Office’s programme of work hasexpanded rapidly in the past two years and a revi-sion of some of the systems and process for shar-ing information between teams and individuals, and for organizing the information is needed. An intranet site is being established to provide a single platform for the documentation of the Country Office’s programmes.

WFp ethiopia produces a large number of studies, evaluations, surveys, research reports and other documents; however these documents are not shared systematically with a wider audience. the knowledge sharing track of the programme is work-ing to define a sharing plan and to identify thematerials necessary to make them more acces-sible.

In the longer term, the role of Knowledge Manage-ment will also be to enable capacity development and improve external advocacy efforts.

Capacity Development

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purchase for progress (p4p) is a pioneering project of WFp to purchase directly from cooperatives of smallholder farmers. Using WFp’s market power, it aims to transform the lives of poor ethiopian farmers by giving them the know-how and tools to be com-petitive players in the agricultural marketplace.

WFp’s normal entry point in the market is large-scale processors, millers and wholesalers. With p4p, it will target ethiopia’s farmers’ cooperative unions, and medium and small-scale traders.

The Ethiopia Country Office has already conducted a baseline survey of cooperative unions, primary cooperatives and traders; a household survey will be conducted in April 2010. training has been pro-vided for cooperative unions and small scale trad-ers on commodity management, quality control, post-harvest handling and technologies, WFp ten-der procedures and contract management. By the end of 2009, 14 cooperative unions and 20 small scale traders had been selected and made part of WFp’s procurement system.

In addition, 630 tons of blended food were pur-chased and tenders were offered for 1000 tons of maize and 760 tons of haricot beans.

In the first year WFP is working with 26,000 farmers in oromiya, SNNpr and Amhara and plans to pur-chase 19,300 tons of commodities. this will rise to 50,000 farmers and 31,000 tons by the end of the five-year project.

Capacity development will depend on the sup-port of WFp’s partners. Major efforts have gone into coordination and advocacy activities given the complex ethiopian context and the huge number of potential partners and existing pro-smallholder projects.

WFp is already cooperating with a number of orga-nizations including the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development, FAo, IFAD, the World Bank, Sasakawa Africa Association, JICA, USAID, food processors and a local post-harvest technologies manufacturer to ensure that adequate assistance is provided to farmers along the entire value chain, bridging the gap between supply and demand.

But the challenges for p4p in ethiopia are daunting: government’s efforts in marketing development are quite recent, the production system is highly frag-mented with low productivity and high losses, con-cepts of post-harvest handling and food quality are new to farmers, farmers’ cooperatives have limited access to credit with poor management and gov-ernance, limited access to marketing information and fewer than 25 percent of farmers are members of farmers’ organizations.

Key to the success of this five-year project is the availability and timing of resources and donations. the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the core money (US$1.8 million) for the first two years. But p4p requires predictable funding for food pur-chases; substantial investment is also needed for market infrastructure and systems, and post-harvest technology, and concerted efforts among key in-ternational and government players are required to increase productivity, create a stable demand for quality products and ensure a conducive policy environment.

P4P linking Farmers with Markets

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Great strides were made in 2009 in ‘Delivering as one’ (DAo), the project designed to make the Unit-ed Nations system work more coherently and effec-tively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment

the UN Country team (UNCt) agreed to move ahead with implementing DAo in ethiopia. A high level steering committee co-chaired by the Minis-try of Finance and economic Development, the UN resident Coordinator and representatives of gov-ernment ministries, UN agencies and donors was set up in 2009. It endorsed a road Map to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the UN system in meeting internationally agreed development goals”. It is strongly supported by the ethiopian government.

the UNCt has agreed that the road Map would focus on five areas: One Programme (increasing the number of joint programmes), one Budgeary Framework and one Fund (a single Budgetary Framework to be introduced), one Leader (the Residence Coordinator’s office to be strengtened), One Office (all UN organisations to be situated in the same complex and joint services to be introduced) and one Voice (UN to communicate As one). In order to implement DAo a High Level Steering Committee to be chaired by the Ministry of Finance and economic Development with line ministries, the UNCt as well as donors will be established. A Donor Support Group and a Civil Society Advisory Com-mittee will be established

Following the mid-term review of the UN Develop-ment Assistance Framework in June 2009, the UNCt and the government decided on the criteria for the new joint programmes. After consultation, three new joint flagship programmes were identified:capacity development in four regional states (Somali, Afar, Gambella and Beneshangul Gumuz), gender equality and women’s empowerment, and improving maternal and newborn health and sur-vival.

the Government of ethiopia is increasingly assum-ing a leadership role and donors have shown their commitment to this initiative. the total cost of these flagship programmes will be approximately US$76 million; the UN has already mobilized US$ 28 million.

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Delivering asOne

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WFp ethiopia has a total of 658 staff (66 interna-tional and 592 national). WFP’s main office is in Addis Ababa supported by eight sub-offices (Mekele, Dessie, Nazareth, Awassa, Dire Dawa, Jijiga, Gode, Gambella) and four field offices (Ke-bridehar, Degehabur, Assosa, Funido) located in Amhara, tigray, oromiya, SNNp, Somali, Dire Dawa, Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.

OPERATIONAL PARTNERSthe Disaster risk Management and Food Security Section (DrMFSS) under the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development (MoArD) is the major Gov-ernment partner. WFp also works within the United Nations Country team, with an array of NGos, key donors represented in the country and maintains strong relationships with in-country multinational financial institutions.

WFP’S gLOBAL MISSION

The WFP strategic plan has five objectives:• Save lives and protect livelihoods in emer gencies • prepare for emergencies • restore and rebuild lives after emergen cies• reduce chronic hunger and under nutrit ion everywhere • Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger

As the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against hunger, WFP is continually responding to emergencies. We save lives by getting food to the hungry fast.But WFp also works to help prevent hun-ger in the future. We do this through pro-grammes that use food as a means to build assets, spread knowledge and nur-ture stronger, more dynamic communities. this helps communities become more food secure.WFp has developed expertise in a range of areas including Food Security Analysis, Nutrition, Food procurement and Logistics to ensure the best solutions for the world’s hungry. In 2009 WFp operation reached some 100 million people with food assistance in 74 countries.

WFP Ethiopia

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For information on WFP Ethiopia activities, contact:

WFP Ethiopia,Public Information Unit,

PO Box 25584, Code 1000Addis Ababa,Ethiopia 1000

Telephone +251 11 5515188 or fax +251 11 5511241Email: wfp.addisababa@wfp.org

Website: www.wfp.org